Penni and Andy Starer attended the Sept. 28 Board of Commissioners meeting via Zoom..
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
VENTNOR – The Board of Commissioners Thursday, Sept. 28 honored Ventnor City Farmers Market founders Penni and Andy Starer who retired their leadership of the market and moved to Florida on a permanent basis.
The Starers attended the meeting via Zoom graciously accepting a proclamation honoring them for their work creating community.
“We met during our campaign,” Mayor Lance Landgraf said. “They talked about tennis and a farmers market. Most people you meet on a campaign say a lot of things to you and never follow up. They followed up and did a fantastic job for more than seven years running the market.”
Landgraf said the Ventnor farmers market is the most successful summer market in the region.
He called the Starers “role models for volunteerism.”
The market attracted nearly 2,000 visitors each week during the summer season to purchase fresh local products from 60 vendors.
Commissioner Tim Kriebel said the Starers will be lifetime friends of Ventnor.
“You have become friends to the whole city,” Kriebel said. “You took the care to hand it to people you know will make the farmers market continue the positive energy that you imbued in it.”
Commissioner Maria Mento repeated the comments she made when the staff and vendors at the farmers market held a special end-of-season luncheon honoring them for their leadership.
“You guy started the ball rolling in Ventnor – making Ventnor hip again,” Mento said. “We saw what you could do and how you changed Ventnor and we took our cues from you. It’s a beautiful thing. I couldn’t wait to get there on Friday mornings.”
“Our hearts are warm,” Penni Starer said, inviting Ventnor to come visit Florida.
In other business, Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds, who served as the city’s solicitor for a year before Gov. Phil Murphy appointed him to the prosecutor’s post.
Reynolds said he was making the rounds to Atlantic County municipalities to talk about his Community Outreach Unit to educate the public about what the Prosecutor’s Office does on a daily basis.
“We are simply an extension of the local police departments. We are the 911 for the 911,” he said.
The office helps local police departments investigate murders, fatal traffic accidents, sexual assaults, fraud and scams against the elderly, social media abuses, crimes against children and more.
“Our most vulnerable citizens are the elderly and teens,” he said.
To build trust and engagement, Reynolds said the unit would “pull back the curtain and be radically transparent with the community because we are taxpayer funded.”
Reynolds said the office has created new service units to investigate internet crimes, mentoring young people in high schools, pre-graduation and pre-prom, assisting at-risk individuals, creating a mental health diversion court, veterans’ response team, and more.
“We’re trying to get people help, which could be a drain on the city,” he said. “These are people who don’t need to be in jail, but actually need to be treated and have their medication managed.”
One of his greatest accomplishments has been putting dangerous criminals behind bars. Before he took over the office, the Atlantic County Justice Facility housed up to 400 inmates, but now has 800 with 700 pending trial.
“We have a 50% detention rate while the state average is 18%,” he said. “We are taking violent criminals off the street.”
As a result, the murder rate countywide has dropped dramatically, he said.
Reynolds also said the office has created a new training program for detectives working for municipal police departments.
The board also approved a $2.5 million bond ordinance to appropriate funds for traffic safety and signalization improvements on Atlantic, Ventnor and Little Rock avenues.
The city was previously awarded a $1.64 million Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant to synchronize five traffic lights on the city-owned portion of Ventnor Avenue, and a handicapped pedestrian crossing project at Little Rock Avenue is being funded with a $300,000 Safe Routes to Transit grant.
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